Please help me economise

[LEMAGAIN]

Right!! THATS IT im not spending another penny i don't need to on food. But i want to eat HEALTHY, TASTY food, but its gotta be cheap as chips.

I struggled in tesco today to get four meals for £20, no essentials in that lot, just food for meals and a pint of milk. I got a chicken, some tuna (tinned) a pack of seasonal veg (carrots, potato and parsnips) sausages and diced beef for a pie, oh and some bramley apples.

I will never stretch that for a week (luckily i wont have to) but our shopping usually comes in between £80-£100 and im like where does it all go. I don't buy processed foods, i cook from scratch, but its mostly meat and veg or something

HELP!!!!! Money saving tips wanted, i want my shopping bill down to £50 a week including cleaning stuff and bog roll. There is me, DP, DD (aged 3) and a small dog.

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oh yes a big bowl of soup with homemade crusty bread with proper butter (can't afford butter for everyday bread/sandwich use so it's a treat in this house) is a favourite in this house

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I have bowls similar to this just for soup (and my supernoodles when DH has the boys ) makes it feel more of a proper meal that just using a cereal type bowl.

when I'm more disciplined with myself I can have weeks where I don't shop, apart from the top ups of milk/bread etc (my freezer isn't big enough for putting milk in there and I'm too forgetful to risk doing it otherwise I'm at a high risk of not having defrosted milk ready for DS3's milk or for breakfasts LOL).

I've been really crap recently - but going to "Spring" (haha) back into action in April and try to get back into my good habits.

At one point I'd bulk cooked enough meals, eat one portion, freeze the other to have "ready" meals in the freezer for 2 weeks worth of dinners

What I try to do is shop fortnightly, walk down to Morrisons on the weekends when DH has the DS's, do a big shop and get a taxi back, but I've been crap recently . He's got them this coming weekend though so shall do it this time.

If you shop in Tescos, go after 7pm. That is when they mark down all the meat and veg, even that stuff they have already marked down gets more reductions. Buy as much as you can and freeze it.

If you have a local market, check out their fruit and veg. It is usually cheaper than the supermarket stuff. I buy large bowls of red peppers for a quid, roast and skin them and put them in the freezer.

If you have a local butcher it may be worth checking them out as well. Mine is frequently cheaper than Tescos, and does things like chicken carcasses for 15p. There's enough meat on them for soup. I also get their ham bones, cook them for stock then shed the rest of the meat and use it in pasta/pies etc.

question here i buy lots of veg but find they dont last a week. Can i freeze some of my frsh veg just that i prefer fresh to frozen.

If so how do i do it?

also if i have any leftover dinners ie chicken curry or spag bol can i freeze them? if so once deforsted do i just warm them up?

sorry if im sounding a bit silly here

Our weekly shop averages out at about £55 a week. Thats for Dh, DD 16mo and myself and we shop at waitrose.
We generally have:
Sunday roast
Monday Pasta of some sort
Tuesday sausage & mash & veg
Wednesday mince (lasagne/bolog/shepherds pie)
Thursday chicken kievs & mash
Friday omlette/pizza
Saturday pasta
I do get the biggest bag of pasta and washing powder/softener. I get nappies from boots as they always have special offers. Potatoes we get from a local farm £6 for a sack, and when i visit my family i always get eggs from them (they have chickens)

We have a john lewis credit card that we get points on when we shop, double if at waitrose, and then they send you vouchers for jl/waitrose when you have got a certain amount, which really helps.

A friend of mine cut her shopping drastically getting meat from the butchers, veg from the market and toiletries from savers.

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how funny i shop in morrisons
morrisons is my nearest supermarket and call me lazy but i dont want to drive further as this uses up more of my time and petrol.

thing is i like to eat veg just as veg and i eat lots of it and dont want to go shopping for it twice a week.

i do try to keep as much in my fridge as possible but buy so much that its not poss

Do you spend money on cleaning products?

You really dont need them, they are costy and full of chemicals.

Boiled water does the job and if you need something antibacterial use plain cheap vinegar. It kills all the bacteria so you can wipe kitchen surfaces, clean bath/sink, floors everything. And gives you sparkling windows and mirors.

Also you can use bic soda diluted in water, you only need very little.

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I think it depends on the Morrisons tbh - our local Morrisons is good - the fresh fruit and veg lasts longer than our local market stuff does!

i wish we had a nice little greengrocers im sure they would be perfect nowdays.
imagine no packaging and buy what you need picking your own as well.

Im going shopping tonight i am armed with a list and will try to do a really really cheap shop. hope i manage it

my shopping usually costs about 140 a wk for myyself dp and 7 dcs i have cut that down to about 100 since buying a cook book called how to feed your family a healthy balanced diet with very little money and hardly any time, even if u have a tiny kitchen, only 3 pans (one with an ill fitting lid) and no fancy gadgets unless u count the garlic crusher its by gill holcombe n its 5 pound on amazon its brilliant

I know that everyone thinks they are expensive but organic box schemes really work for me on saving money - £15 for a family of 3's fruit and veg for the week. Mine also delivers milk, butter, eggs etc for the same price / cheaper than in my local supermarket. It means you aren't popping out for essentials to the corner shop where you always manage to come back with other things (magazine / chocolate / biscuits).

Again this probably sounds counter-intuitive but buy your meat from Waitrose. They do something called 'Forgotten Cuts' which are dirt cheap - £2 for pork hock, £1.50 for neck of lamb, etc etc.

I can make 3 meals plus stock from a chicken - sunday roast, chicken legs and salad and chicken & noodle soup.

I also have a rule that if we have random food in the cupboard but no obvious 'meal solutions' then we just have to come up with something - even if it's weird/imaginative.

Risotto is dirt cheap to make as are most rice dishes.

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"t means you aren't popping out for essentials to the corner shop where you always manage to come back with other thing"

I don't - I have a set amount to spend on "extras" each week - I withdraw it in cash, that money has to last me - and it does - and at the end of everyday I remove all coins 20p and less from my wallet and put in my "piggy bank" (actually a London Bus)

tommy that book sounds just about perfect for me, my saucepans are shit and my cooker is down to three rings!!!

Right, i have a chicken carcass - what will i do with it???

example of this weeks local fruit and veg box (the biggest one they do) at £15

green cabbage UK
cauliflower UK
chestnut mushrooms UK
red batavia lettuce FR
calabrese ES
vine tomatoes ES
courgettes ES
gala apples AR
navel oranges ES
bananas PE

Where's the onions? potatoes? carrots? can't do baked potatoes, bacon and onion hotpot or lentil and carrot souop, can't make a basic "bolognese" type sauce with no onions either - and how many bananas? bet I'd still be going out to buy more.

I borrowed that book from the library. Very good, worth asking them to get in as normally only about 50p to reserve!

I also found that morrisons veg went off quickly.

Am about to do a bulk internet shop and skip a week next week.

yeah, im very about veg boxes, i dont want lettuce or calabrese - the rest is all good, but i dont want to pay for stuff i dont use.

Chucked the chicken in the stock pot, with some water and carrots and parsnips, didnt have an onion spare - um, put some rosemary from garden in - now what???

veg boxes are no good for me i use double or more than that amount of vega wk n dont fancy spendin 30 plus a wk at my local farm shop that list would come to just under 8 quid